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Some findings from the Fayette Visioning Initiative Competitive Assessment:
“Stakeholders are fiercely proud of the local schools and recognize the importance of protecting and further nurturing such an asset.”
“The education system has been the jewel for the community and a beacon that has brought many families to the county.”
“There is little doubt that public schools in Fayette County are among the best in the state of Georgia.”
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1ljK9bM
It seems as if, everywhere you turn these days, there are studies claiming to show that America has lost its upward mobility for people born in the lower socioeconomic levels.
But there is a sharp difference between upward “mobility,” defined as an opportunity to rise, and mobility defined as actually having risen.
That distinction is seldom even mentioned in most of the studies. It is as if everybody is chomping at the bit to get ahead, and the ones that don’t rise have been stopped by “barriers” created by “society.”
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1ljK8Vk
After much criticism from conservative quarters, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided, at least for now, to withdraw plans for its proposed study of how media organizations gather and report news.
The expressed goal of the survey was to determine if the “critical information needs” of the public are being met.
In making the announcement on Friday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated the survey would be “revised” and that the government agency had “no intention” of regulating political speech of journalists or other broadcasters.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1ljK8EL
Cuts to family budgets have been significant since the Great Recession began in late 2007. Likewise, cuts to public school budgets in Georgia and nationally have been significant as well. That said, the economic challenges facing public schools during the Great Recession need to be put in historical context.
A recent Georgia State University policy brief reported an 18.9 percent increase in the state’s public school teachers between 2001 and 2012, and a 28 percent increase in school-based administrators.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1dvJ34P
Thousands of days, all those filled with clouds, rain, snow or sunshine, have passed since that time, yet the lesson sticks stubbornly to my heart.
For two years, I spent Tuesday afternoons volunteering as a mentor in an elementary school where every child was poor. An astounding 96 percent of them qualified for free or reduced price lunches. The vast majority of them had traveled with their families from a desperate country where, though it’s hard to imagine, they had been even poorer than the life they found in America.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/OzE8KW
According to a recent safety poll conducted by the national security firm SafeWise, the city of Fayetteville was named as one of the top 50 safest cities in the state of Georgia.
SafeWise compares data from the FBI Crime Reports and other in-house research of Georgia cities with a population of 5,000 or more to compile an annual list of the safest cities in Georgia.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/OzE7qc
There has been a heated battle for years between the backers of scientific climate change and the deniers.
A much cited peer-reviewed scientific literature, examining 11,944 climate abstracts from 1991 to 2011 matching the topics “global climate change” or “global warming” determined that among abstracts they expressed a position on, 97.1 percent endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming.
Wow, I would think only the theory of gravity may have a higher consensus.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1dvIZ53
Our chief executive officer, Barack Obama, has again shown that any leadership he might exercise is based on fear. It’s an ancient ploy: make people afraid of something, and then tell them that you (and only you) can save them.
Like others before him (Al Gore comes to mind), Obama appealed to fear by saying in a Feb. 14, 2014 news conference: “A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods are potentially going to be costlier and they’re going to be harsher.”
That is, in my opinion, duplicitous to the point of being a lie.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1dvIYxR
This is in response to Councilman Mike King’s letter to the editor in the Feb. 19 issue of The Citizen.
After reading Councilman Mike King’s letter I can only say this is his attempt to schmooz the way, however lamely, for yet another traffic light along the 54 West corridor.
Am I missing something here? What sane-thinking person, anyone who has experienced the grid lock and colossal inefficiency of this traffic nightmare, could possibly even imagine yet another traffic light let alone suggest “reasons” for one.
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1hc7CbJ
Few family crises tug more at the heart of mother than not being with her child when she is in pain.
Mary had to undergo another operation for a ragged rotator cuff.
Yes, the first one was just last fall, but once that healed up, the other began to make itself felt and she went ahead and scheduled surgery.
Why would a 50-something pianist come down with what is usually regarded as an athletic ailment when she is so careful about nutrition and fitness? And why did this develop in the first place?
via The Citizen http://ift.tt/OzAQHy